The fatal shooting on Wednesday of a top UnitedHealthcare executive, Brian Thompson, on a New York footpath has unleashed a torrent of morbid glee from patients and others who say they have had negative experiences with health insurers at some of the hardest times of their lives.
Messages that law enforcement officials say were found on bullet casings at the scene of the shooting in front of a New York hotel – “delay” and “deny” – are two words familiar to many Americans who have interacted with insurance companies for almost anything other than routine doctor visits.
“The insurance industry is not the most loved, to put it mildly,” Meier said. “If you’re a C-suite executive of another insurance company, I would be thinking, ‘What’s this mean for me? Am I next?’”A longtime employee of UnitedHealthcare said workers at the company had been aware for years that members were unhappy.